80 research outputs found
The nutritional benefits of cash transfers in humanitarian crises: Evidence from Yemen
No full textAt the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 the long-standing divide between humanitarian and development approaches was challenged with a call for responses that both meet immediate needs and protect human capital for eventual recovery. In this regard, the use of cash transfers in humanitarian settings is an emerging trend; however, it has been limited by a lack of evidence on how well cash transfers improve nutritional outcomes given the challenges of conducting rigorous evaluations in a crisis context. This study makes use of a cluster randomized control trial that was left in place when a pilot cash-plus intervention evolved during the civil conflict into a major program within the Yemen Emergency Crisis Response program. The results provide uniquely rigorous evidence of the potential for long-run nutritional benefits of cash transfers in humanitarian crisis settings. The “Cash for Nutrition” intervention provides cash transfers as well as nutritional training to targeted households with young children in Yemen in the context of what is considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Differences-in-differences estimates indicate that the intervention significantly increased purchases of non-staple foods which translated into large positive impacts on child dietary diversity scores. Impacts on consumption patterns and dietary diversity are significant for the full sample and strongest among the poorest tercile of households where the transfers are largest relative to baseline household food budgets. In this poorest sub-group we also find large and statistically significant program impacts on height-for-age z-scores of 0.3. These results support the increased use of cash transfers and provide a benchmark for comparison with more traditional food distribution and supplementation strategies for supporting child nutrition in protracted crisis contexts.PRIFPRI3; ISI; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for allDSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM
Ex post adjustment for measurement error in stunting calculations: An illustration from Egypt
No full textPRIFPRI3; ISI; DCA; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for allPIM; DSGDCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM
Crisis resilience: Humanitarian response and anticipatory action
No full textIn human, economic, and environmental terms, the total cost of disaster and crisis response is extremely high, and the disastrous combination of the food price crises coming on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and natural calamities is straining public budgets and squeezing financial options. In 2020, private and public losses from weather-related disasters alone exceeded a total of US$258 billion globally — 29 percent above the 2001–2020 average — making it the fifth costliest year on record, and rising temperatures are expected to bring even more frequent and severe extreme weather events. At the same time, conflict has become a leading contributor to humanitarian crisis situations — as seen most recently with the food and energy crises precipitated by the Russia-Ukraine war and refugee flows driven by the Syrian civil war.PRIFPRI4Development Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation Strategie
Nutritional training in a humanitarian context: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial
No full textBehavioural change communication interventions have been shown to be effective at improving infant and young child nutrition knowledge and practices. However, evidence in humanitarian response contexts is scarce. Using data on secondary outcomes of breastfeeding, water treatment, and knowledge from a cluster randomized control trial of the Yemen Cash for Nutrition programme's impact on child nutritional status, this paper shows that the programme significantly improved knowledge and practices for poor women with young children in the pilot districts. The intervention consisted of cash transfers and monthly group nutrition education sessions led by locally recruited community health volunteers. Data are based on self‐reports by participants. Estimating impacts among all 1,945 women in 190 clusters randomly assigned to treatment versus control and controlling for baseline levels and community characteristic and adjusting for noncompliance with randomization, the programme increased the probability of breastfeeding initiation within the first hour after delivery by 15.6% points (p < .05; control = 74.4% and treatment = 83.6%), the probability of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months by 14.4% points (control = 13.5% and treatment = 25.3%), the probability of households treating water consumed by adults by 16.7% points (p < .01; control = 13.9% and treatment = 23.4%), and treating water consumed by children under two by 10.3% points (p < .10; control = 31.2% and treatment = 37.9%). Impacts on knowledge and breastfeeding are similar for both literate and illiterate women, and water treatment impacts are significantly larger for literate women. This study was registered at 3ie (RIDIE‐STUDY‐ID‐5b4eff881b29a) and funded by the Nordic Trust Fund and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research programme on Policies, Institutions, and Markets.PRIFPRI3; DCA; ISI; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; EgyptSSPDSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Programs on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM
Social protection amidst social upheaval: Examining the impact of a multi-faceted program for ultra-poor households in Yemen
No full textNon-PRIFPRI5DSG
The cash for nutrition intervention in Yemen: Impact evaluation study
No full textThis evaluation of Yemen’s Cash for Nutrition intervention, a cash transfer program combined with nutritional trainings implemented by the Yemen Social Fund for Development (YSF), examines the program’s impacts on child nutrition indicators and related intermediate variables during a period of conflict. The decline in several indicators of welfare for the sample population that occurred after the beginning of the civil conflict in Yemen is also traced. Overall, the program decreased the share of children diagnosed with moderate or severe malnutrition and improved anthropometric indicators of nutritional status in children in the poorest third of households. The Cash for Nutrition program was funded by the World Bank through the United Nations Development Programme as part of the Yemen Emergency Crisis Response Project.Non-PRIFPRI1; EgyptSSP; CRP2; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender themeDSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM
Unlocking the power of partnership to address Yemen’s food crisis and strengthen food system resilience
No full textKey Messages
• Yemen is experiencing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises resulting from prolonged conflict, with about half the population suffering from food insecurity.
• Food availability and affordability in Yemen is extremely vulnerable to external shocks because of the fragility of the national food system and its heavy dependence on food imports by the private sector and international humanitarian agencies.
• A recent workshop jointly organized by IFPRI and HSA Group reviewed the state of collaboration between key actors in Yemen’s food system and discussed avenues to building strong cross-sector partnerships for ending the current food crisis and strengthening food system resilience.
• Limited collaboration among the public, private, and third sectors (for example, in the form of collective action, multistakeholder partnerships) contributes to inefficiencies in food supply chains and food aid delivery.
• Currently, collaborations are often ad hoc, limited to peer-to-peer partnerships, and constrained by a siloed mentality.
• With a potential peace agreement, new opportunities for cross sector collaboration and strategic partnerships between food system actors are emerging.
• Enhanced communication among the public, private, and third sectors is an important first step toward improving mutual understanding, building trust, exchanging critical information and ideas, and realizing opportunities for effective collective action.PRIFPRI1; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; DCA; EgyptSSPDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation Strategies; Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM
Impacts on trust and social capital of a youth employment program in Yemen: Evaluation of the rural and urban advocates working for development intervention for the Social Fund for Development
No full textThis paper evaluates the impacts on the participants of the Yemen Social Fund for Development’s youth employment and training program called Rural and Urban Advocates Working for Development (RUAWFD). The evaluation used both traditional surveys and an innovative experimental game methodology to show that the employment program, in addition to aiding youth individually, has important benefits for the country as a whole by contributing to stronger social capital. The survey analysis finds for the program participants significant increases between the baseline and follow-up surveys in self-reported trust in local government institutions and officials, political parties, and tribes. In reflecting on the level of cooperativeness in their own communities, participants reported increased awareness of the presence of marginalized groups and increased perception of cooperativeness in surrounding communities. There was also a significant increase in self-reported trust in people generally, especially for trust in other young people and in people from other areas of Yemen. The experimental game methodology uses a common pool game from the experimental economics literature incentivized by cash payments to measure trust levels between pairs of RUAWFD participants from different geographic regions. This approach confirms the findings from the survey analysis while avoiding possible self-reporting bias. The game results show that trust was lowest at baseline for partners in which one of the partners was from one of the Northern governorates and the other was from one of the Southern governorates. After the intervention, however, not only were average trust levels higher, but Northern-Southern pairs of RUAWFD participants had trust levels closer to those for pairs from the same regions.
These findings are consistent with the literature on inter-group contact theory suggesting that community interventions can increase trust in individuals and institutions. This research contributes to a growing literature on trust and social capital as important development indicators, particularly in relation to conflict. The main results suggest that reinforcing social ties across regions in Yemen is an important benefit of the Social Fund for Development’s role as a national development agency and an achievable objective to consider in planning development interventions to contribute to future post-conflict reconstruction.Non-PRIFPRI1; EgyptSSP; CRP2; DCA; 5 Strengthening Institutions and GovernanceDSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM
Impact of falling remittances amid COVID-19 on Yemen’s war-torn economy
No full textEven before the COVID-19 pandemic battered economies across the world, Yemen had already experienced a half decade of civil war, resulting in a loss of approximately 45 percent of its real GDP by the end of 2019, according to the Yemeni Ministry of Planning. As the conflict continued, remittances from Yemenis working outside the country kept many households afloat and became an increasingly important source of income, estimated at $3.77 billion in 2019 — around 13 percent of GDP.Non-PRIFPRI4; CRP4; Agricultural Investment Data Analyzer (AIDA); CRP2DSGD; PIM; DGO; A4NHCGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH
Challenges for private sector job matching in rural Egypt: Results from a survey of forsa employers
No full textIncreasing formal employment for youth and women is a key goal of the Forsa pilot graduation intervention and Egyptian government policy in general. As detailed in Forsa evaluation reports, matching Takaful beneficiaries with jobs in the private sector is a major challenge from the perspective of households. In this policy note, we examine the challenges from the perspective of potential employers. We review literature of the market failures that may contribute to difficulties with job matching in rural Egypt and present results from a small telephone survey of Forsa employers.Non-PRIFPRI1; EgyptSSP; Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity (EIBC); 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and GovernanceDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation Strategie
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